


Dæmorphing Drabbles

by Poetry



Series: Dæmorphing Divergences [4]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Drabble Collection, Gen, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2018-10-27 20:07:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10815816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry
Summary: A collection of drabbles and ficlets set in the Dæmorphing 'verse. Not necessarily canon for Dæmorphing.





	1. Affection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Eva's dæmons are a cuttlefish and a penguin, which means Marco and Diamanta are used to some non-standard ways of showing affection. Set between "Make a Little Birdhouse in Your Soul" and "The Shapes of Our Souls."

“How do you do it?” says Merlyse. She’s curled up in Jake’s arms as the fluffiest malamute puppy Marco’s ever seen, his chin buried in the fur at the back of her neck.

“Do what?” says Diamanta. She’s draped over Jake’s nightstand as an octopus, the tips of two tentacles curled around Marco’s fingers.

“Stay so… apart. After everything that’s happened in the last few days. I can hardly stand not to touch him.” Merlyse turns her head and nuzzles Jake’s cheek. 

“It’s different for us. Your sire is a salamander, which isn’t exactly cuddly, but your dam is an emu. I remember all the times she would take you and me and Delareyne literally under her wing. Neither of my parents are like that. Mercurio’s wings were too short to give me anything like a hug, and Mirazai has to be in water to really be comfortable. This – ” Diamanta twitches her tentacles around Marco’s fingers – “is how my dam says hello. Her version of a hug – the two-tentacle handshake. I guess I don’t really see closeness the way other dæmons do.”

“If you’re ever going to get married, you’ll have to find somebody really weird,” Merlyse reflects.

“I’ll keep that in mind if the Yeerks don’t manage to take over the Earth by the time I’m old enough for that,” says Diamanta, waving a free tentacle. She regrets the joke almost as soon as she says it. An uneasy silence falls across the room. 

Diamanta squeezes Marco’s fingers a little tighter, and they remember Mercurio. Diamanta used to become a baby penguin, just the right height to tuck her head under Mercurio’s chin. Then, later on, she’d become a jewelled lizard and drape herself around Mercurio’s neck like a fashion piece, a splash of color against black and white feathers.

Diamanta wishes he were here. It wasn’t the kind of affection between dæmons you saw in the movies. But it was theirs.


	2. Delayed Gratification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the DMV, Loren bumps into her brother, Tobias's alcoholic "guardian."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for ableism, child neglect, and slurs.

I didn’t recognize him, at first. It had been thirteen years since I’d last encountered him. But I was at the DMV to get my non-driver state ID renewed when I heard him say his full name at the service counter. “Leo St. Clair and Esaldar.” 

“It’s _him_ ,” Jaxom said. Dimly, through his vision, I could see a distorted grayscale image of a tall man with blond hair like mine. Leo. My good-for-nothing brother who’d made my son so miserable he’d fled his human life to become a hawk.

At first I was frozen. All I could do was shudder with disgust. Tobias had never told me details of what it had been like to grow up with my brother and his ex-wife, so my mind had filled in horrible wild imaginings. Leo had screamed at him and told him he was a waste of space. Leo had made him do all the household chores, like Cinderella. Leo had beaten him. 

By the time I unfroze, Leo was done with whatever he’d come here to do. I stood up and walked toward him. “Remember,” Jaxom whispered. “As far as the world knows, Tobias is missing.”

I came up behind Leo, reached up to grip him by the shoulder, and hissed, “ _Where is my son_?”

Leo’s shoulder stiffened beneath my touch. He spun around. Jaxom could see a pale smudge around his neck, probably Esaldar. “Loren,” he sneered, flinching away from my hand. “Why do you care? You’re the one who dumped him.” He scoffed. “I’m surprised you even recognized me. Last time I saw you, you were talking like a retard. You didn’t know your ass from your elbow.”

“I know _this_ , you _bastard_ ,” I spat. “You were supposed to take care of my son, and now he’s missing. Presumed dead.”

“Kid was a weirdo like you,” Leo said. “Trouble. Guess he got himself over his head in something. Probably a gang.”

“And whose fault is that?” I said, voice rising. “You were supposed to take the place of his father, and all you can say about him is that he was _trouble_  and a _weirdo_!” I wanted to search for ammunition, to find the right thing to get under his skin. To say something that would really frighten him. I wanted to punch him in the face. But I was still supposed to be an amnesiac, a meek defeated woman beneath the Yeerks’ notice. I couldn’t draw attention to myself.

“Oh yeah, blame me,” Leo said. “You were always a pain in my ass, Loren, and since you got in that accident you’re a retarded, pathetic pain in my ass. Stop whining at me and leave me alone.”

I got right up in his face and spoke low, so only he could hear. “I can’t make you sorry for this right here, right now. But one day, you will answer for what you have done. _That’s a promise_.” Then I walked away.


	3. A Place in the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ax finds out why Tobias is bullied so much. Set in the Andalite!Tobias alternate timeline in "A Place to Stand."

By the time I arrived to intervene in the fight, it was already over, the bullies scattered. Tobias was reeling, a bruise blackening on the side of his head. One of the bullies must have knocked him silly with the flat of his blade.

«Tobias,» I said. «Why didn’t you call for me? I would have protected you.»

Tobias looked at me with only a single stalk eye. «I am fine.»

«No, you have a nasty bruise. You should go to the infirmary.» I fixed on him with my main eyes. «There is no shame in losing a tail fight to bullies. Not all males are meant to be warriors. There is a place in the world for people like you.»

«That’s not it,» Tobias whispered. «I didn’t want you to hear what they said.»

«There is nothing they could say about you that I would give any credit.»

«It wasn’t about you, Aximili,» Tobias said miserably, finally looking at me with his main eyes. «It was about Mother. How she’s strange, and stupid, and rude, and gave me a name no one’s ever heard of.»

And Tobias could never explain why Loren was the way she was, because no one could know the secret that she was an alien who had become an Andalite _nothlit_. Now I understood his predicament. I should have seen it sooner. 

«You will not face this alone, Tobias-kala,» I said. «I will not let them hurt you again.» And I would speak to Loren privately, tell her that she needed to expose herself to Andalite society more, learn to navigate our culture better, so as to spare her son this pain. But Tobias did not need to know about that.

Tobias snorted. «You’re barely older than me. You can’t call me Tobias-kala.»

I smiled. «And how will you stop me?»

«I’ll tell Father why you score so poorly in xenobiology!»

«You wouldn’t dare!»

«Yes I would, _Aximili-kala_!»

I chased him through the schoolyard. He outran me, like he always does. 


	4. Doomsday Scenario

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel won't talk to Cassie about her problems. Lourdes wants to know what she's so afraid of. Set between "A Place to Stand" and "The Bright Clear Line."

“What’s your doomsday scenario?” Lourdes asks.

“What do you mean?” says Rachel, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You say you don’t want to tell Cassie about what’s going on in Abineng’s head. What are you afraid she’ll do or say?”

“Oh.” Rachel squeezes her upper arms in her hands and looks down. “Um. Do you know how Cassie and Aftran met?”

“Yes. Cassie left the Animorphs. After she quit, she fell off her horse and got lost in the woods. She encountered Aftran and her host.”

“Cassie left because she was afraid of turning into me,” Rachel says bluntly. “She apologized, after. But if she hears what I’m like now…”

“You think she’ll be truly afraid of becoming like you, and leave again,” says Lourdes. “Well, I can tell you that won’t happen. She won’t give up the fight as long as she can help Aftran.”

“Oh, well _that’s_ reassuring.”

“More than that,” says Lourdes, “I think she might approve of what you’ve done with Tobias.”

“And there’s my other doomsday scenario,” says Rachel. “She’ll actually think what I’m doing is a good idea.”

“And if she thinks it’s a good idea, then you’ll have to consider accepting it. She’s your moral compass.” Lourdes sighs. “Rachel, you can’t outsource morality. You have to find it yourself. I know you can do it.”

“Really?” says Abineng. “I don’t.”

_But maybe,_ whispers the voice of temptation, _if we let Tobias in our mind again, he can show us how._


	5. Running Commentary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftran and Eva snark at each other during a boring meeting. Set between "Abel or Cain" and "The Guided and the Lost."

Resupply for the Nova ship. It was a very important topic. The ship needed fuel, water, food, and parts for repairs. There was a Skrit Na ship nearby that had offered very good prices on engine coolant, but some of the Sub-Vissers didn’t trust the Skrit Na as suppliers. The Nova ship depended on having optimally functional engine nacelles. 

«You are trying so hard to convince yourself to pay attention,» Aftran said. «It’s so earnest it’s kind of cute.»

«We  _do_  have to pay attention,» Mercurio said, as Sub-Visser Thirty laid out xyr lengthy case for why Skrit Na were cheating scum who should not be trusted to provide the precious engine coolant. «We need this ship to keep running as much as anyone else on board.»

«You can just tune out until they get to the important part,» Aftran said. «The nice thing about sharing a brain is that only one of us has to pay attention at a time.»

«Well you’re clearly not, so I guess it’s my turn,» I thought. «Why don’t you kindly volunteer to take a turn at the next meeting on complying with Empire fleet protocols?»

«I don’t know anything about that,» Aftran admitted. «Or how to supply a Nova ship. I’m only a leader in the Peace Movement. In the Empire, I’m nothing.»

«All right, then listen up,» I said. «Sub-Visser Thirty is arguing against this because xe has no idea how limited our budget is and wants to show off xyr ideological purity by questioning the trustworthiness of any species not under Yeerk control. Sub-Visser Sixty-Five is going to argue _for_  it because she’s in charge of managing the costs for this ship. Sub-Visser 201 is a hothead who’s going to suggest we just steal the engine coolant from the Skrit Na.»

«Huh,» Aftran said. «Maybe this meeting isn’t so boring after all. Tell me more.»


	6. Cold Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco and Diamanta deal with dæmon stereotypes at Peter's wedding. Set during The Tree of Life.

“So, Marco,” Nora’s mom said. She was kind of toasted by this point in the wedding reception. “Nora told me your dæmon recently settled as a rattlesnake. Were you disappointed?”  


I’d mostly been snarking and charming my way through my stepfamily, but I was so surprised at that one I didn’t have a good comeback. “What?” I said, cupping Dia’s head in my hand. “Why would I be disappointed?”

Nora’s mom waved vaguely at Dia. “Well, I’m glad to hear you’re so self-confident, young man. But, you know, she’s a _snake_.”

“Oh, you know, she’s just part of the charm offensive,” I said breezily. “People think I’m all cool and aloof and mysterious because I have a snake dæmon, and then they meet me and they see just how cute and charming I am.”  


Nora’s mom was obnoxious, but she wasn’t wrong. I couldn’t pull the cute class clown act the way I used to. People saw Dia and they thought twice about me. Maybe they should. But I wasn’t sure it was how I was ready for strangers to see me.


	7. First Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened when the two great loves of Kalysico's life touched her. A coda to "Hospitality."

Inez and Julian didn’t touch each other’s dæmons the day of their engagement or on their wedding night. It wasn’t anything like the scenes he’d read in books. 

It was on a quiet evening of their honeymoon, as they sipped pisco sours on the balcony of their hotel room, enjoying the sunset over Cuzco. Belkatry perched on the balcony railing, his wings outstretched, feeling the mountain breeze. Julian had the top of Kalysico’s tank open. Inez watched the sunset light play on Kaly’s pale scales, murmured, “She’s so beautiful like this,” and trailed her fingers in the water. And Kaly just… rose to meet her fingers, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

The moment was so quiet, so peaceful, but it rocked Julian’s world. Nothing was ever the same after that. 

The first time Illim touched Kaly wasn’t much like that. It was quiet, too. But it didn’t change anything. It felt like a natural extension of what had come before.

“I want to practice the purification rite with you,” Kaly told Illim. “Before we do it in the Aftran Plisam Pool tomorrow. It’s our first time touching. That means something to dæmons. It shouldn’t be for everyone to see.”

It was the same purification rite that all new visitors to a Pool go through. She asked to be purified so she wouldn’t contaminate the Pool’s waters. And Illim swam to her, in the water of her tank, palps outstretched.

He spread the slime gently over her face, first, with slow strokes of his palps. Then he rubbed his side against hers, adding the slime coat there. They twisted around each other like the twin fish of Pisces, until she was covered, a layer of protection between her and the water. It wasn’t gross or strange. Just one creature of the water greeting another.

“It feels like you belong here as much as I do,” Kaly said to him. “Julian always carries this tank around with him, so there’s a place for me. And that means when you have to be outside of him, there’s always a place for you.”


	8. Reaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tag to chapter 4 of "Welcome Home." How did the Aftran Plisam Pool's chatroom react to Tobias's visit?

**The Aftran Plisam Pool**

**#adults**

If your spawn-name is Mielan, you should not have access to this channel. If you do, somebody will find out, so log off now before you get in trouble.

**Arklin:**  [ _Emoji of a Yeerk rolling around in nutrient-rich mud. Indicates triumph, joy, fulfillment._ ] I FILSHIG CALLED IT. How long have I been telling you dapsens that the """Andalite bandits""" are human? HOW LONG?

**Janath:**  We just found out that a band of  _human children_  were the ones who massacred and starved hundreds of Yeerks and all you can do is brag about how your pet theory was right? Get a hold of yourself, @Arklin. 

**Hrerr:**  Well, what can you expect when one of them is the son of Beast Elfangor? 

**The Sage in the Weeds:** You don’t actually believe that whole story about Beast Elfangor having a child on Earth, do you?

**Illim:**  I believe it. Tobias has only ever lied to me to protect himself and his associates from the Empire.

**Eslin 825:**  [ _Emoji of an adult Yeerk hovering protectively over a grub._ ] The real question is, what do we tell the children? I’m logged into the #all-ages channel and they have a lot of questions.

**Akdor’s Worst Nightmare:**  Most of them haven’t even accepted that humans are fully sentient beings, let alone that they, too, could be scared children caught in a great war.

**Filshig Traitor:** How am I supposed to explain things to the Mielan grubs when  _I_  don’t even understand what’s happening?!

**Akdor’s Worst Nightmare:** Welcome to being a creche-teacher, @Filshig Traitor. That’s the question we ask ourselves every day.


End file.
